Expert Children’s Rights & Climate (Kenya)

Call of application for the provision of consultancy services to Kindernothilfe e.V. (KNH) for assisting Kenyan partner organizations in addressing climatic-risk factors that exacerbate existing child rights violations in their respective project regions by supporting them in developing strategies to address identified climatic risk factors further threatening the realization of children’s rights in Kenya.

1. Background Kindernothilfe e.V. (KNH)

Kindernothilfe (KNH), German for “Supporting Children in Need”, was founded in 1959 and is one of the largest child rights organisations in Germany. The overall goal of KNH is to contribute to promoting children’s rights by empowering children and youth with their families and communities to lead self-reliant lives in a world where their voices are heard. KNH partners with local non-governmental organisations that implement around 530 projects in 36 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, reaching out to more than 2.3 million children and young people.

In Kenya, KNH is currently supporting 11 direct partners with 15 projects and a Self Help Group Approach-Programme.

2. Background and Consultancy Context: Support for KNH’s Child Rights Programming in Kenya

Over the years Kenya has experienced an increasing climate crisis, manifested by frequent droughts, floods, and extreme weather conditions. The crisis has posed severe threats to children, worsening existing rights violations such as malnutrition, disrupted education, and increased vulnerability to exploitation. Recognizing these effects on children, Kindernothilfe has seen the need to integrate climate-resilient strategies into the ongoing child rights programming process. By incorporating climate change considerations into the ongoing Child Rights Situation Analysis (CRSA), Kindernothilfe partners will be able to develop sustainable, rights-based interventions to safeguard children’s well-being and strengthen community resilience in the face of these challenges.

Currently, five Kenyan partner organisations of KNH are in the process of developing six new child rights-based and impact-oriented projects. The partners are supported through a comprehensive Child Rights Programming (CRP) capacity development process. This process means that the child rights principles are applied in the planning, implementation and monitoring of projects and programmes with the overall aim of improving the situation of children. This way, children can fully enjoy their rights and live in societies where children’s rights are recognized and respected.

In developing these projects, there is a need for partners to address different trends and risks such as the increasing frequency of natural disasters in Kenya, which required partner organisations to compromise on project strategies and activities in the past. Through the CRP Process, the organisations are better aware of the impact and interrelatedness of children’s rights and climate change effects. They have identified and prioritized child rights violations in their respective project regions through conducting a Child Right’s Situational Analysis (CRSA) and have further identified additional climatic risk factors that threaten to exacerbate the identified rights violations. In the next step, the organisations are required to explore long-term strategies that can be employed and integrated into their projects to strengthen the resilience of the affected communities. For these strategies, partners need additional support. Against this background, KNH will offer training to equip partner organisations in Kenya with the necessary tools to address climate-related risk factors that exacerbate existing child rights violations in their project regions. Finally, this will allow partners to integrate those tools into the project design that will be developed in the following and last module of the process.

3. Objectives of the Consultancy

In light of the outlined background, KNH is hiring a consultant to support the KNH partner organisations in Kenya in the development of programmatic strategies that address climate crisis-related risk factors through effective and meaningful participatory strategies; these address the root causes that lead to existing and future violations of children’s rights and sustainably strengthen their resilience and their communities. Each partner has already identified climate crisis-related risk factors that threaten to exacerbate existing rights violations through a project-level CRSA. The consultant will work closely with each partner (individually to address the negative effects of the climate crisis on children and young people in their projects according to the given context and supports them in adapting to them more effectively by sustainably strengthening their resilience through (new) programme strategies.

The support to the partner organisations is envisioned in a two-fold way:

a) Facilitating online sessions

The consultant will facilitate three online sessions, each lasting 2-3 hours, for all Kenyan KNH partner organisations. These sessions will provide comprehensive guidance on address identified risk factors and subsequently develop appropriate strategies.

b) Partner-individual backstopping

The consultant will provide tailored support to individual organizations in the design of approaches to address identified climate crisis-related risk factors in the CRSA. This support is expected to ensure that each organization’s strategies are contextually relevant and effective.

KNH will provide orientation and guidance on CRP, along with additional programmatic and partner organization-specific knowledge

4. Expected Scope and Timeline of the Consultancy

Support will be provided to five partner organisations currently participating in the CRP training in Kenya. These organizations operate in the following counties: Kakamega, Mombasa, Kwale, Embu, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Isiolo, and Samburu. Their programmatic focus includes community-based rehabilitation of children with disabilities, promotion of children’s rights, welfare promotion and protection for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), early childhood care and education, and rescuing boys and girls from commercial sexual exploitation.

Tentative overall timeline: 01.03.2025 – 15.05.2025

5. Specific Tasks and Expected Deliverables

• Onboarding meeting with KNH to understand the process and expected deliverables
• Develop the online sessions/topics/content with the support of KNH.
• Facilitation of three online sessions to Kenyan KNH partner organizations à 2-3h supporting the organizations in the development of strategies to address identified crisis-related risk factors in their project regions.
• Review of the Child Rights Situation Analysis-Reports of partner organisations to be able to understand and address their project context.
• Individual online backstopping to six project teams (from five different partner organizations) supporting the organizations in the development of strategies to address crisis-related risk factors in their respective project regions.
• Final written report summarizing the two online sessions and the backstopping to the individual project teams.

This consultancy is based on the consultant’s capacity to support Kenyan KNH partner organisations in the CRP process after orientation by KNH. It is then the responsibility of the consultant to ensure that the contents of the training have been understood and can be applied by partner organisations through partner-individual backstopping.

The consultancy ends with a final written report by the consultant on the progress of the consultancy and a final meeting with the KNH.

6. Required Qualifications

This call is open to anyone who can credibly demonstrate at least the following qualifications and skills as well as the motivation to work with us and our partner organisations:

• Master’s degree related to Community Development, Human Rights, Climate Change, or other related Social Sciences.
• Proven expertise in climate crisis adaptation and humanitarian assistance as well as experience in community-based development in Kenya. Any further experience in the climate sector is an added advantage.
• Experience in working with child rights/human rights organizations in Kenya and knowledge of the NCO scene in Kenya.
• Experience in working with rights-based approaches and in the promotion of children’s rights, with theoretical and/or practical background.
• Proven experience in designing and conducting training or other forms of capacity development.
• Proven experience in providing backstopping support as part of capacity development to NGOs.
• Team player, proactive, and capable of meeting tight deadlines.
• Strong oral and written communication skills in English and Swahili.
• Resident of Kenya (preferably)While Kenyan residents are preferred, we also welcome applicants with extensive experience in Kenya’s environmental context and strong understanding of Kenya’s climate landscape.
• Highly proficient in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Zoom

7. Contract and Payment Conditions

Contract payments shall be made in the following instalments:

• 30% upon signing of the contract
• 30% after facilitation of the two online sessions to partner organizations
• 40% after submission of the final written report after individual backstopping to partner organizations.